This is a guest blog
entry by RuthJoy Razon, SmartDraw Software’s Training and Development Manager.
SmartDraw Software has developed Visual Process Management (VPM) a
revolutionary new approach to business process management. Properly facilitating a VPM interview is keyto completing a comprehensive VPM Collection. Learn RuthJoy’s top tips below.
In my last post, I outlined some of my best VPM
documentation tips. However, without effective interview techniques, as a VPM
facilitator you will most likely not get the information you need. When you
facilitate skillfully, you encourage involvement by showing interest in the
participants and helping them feel free to comment and ask questions. Communication
skills also help you obtain feedback from the participants about how the VPM
interview is being received. This enables you to respond to the participants’
needs most appropriately.
You will use the following four basic communication skills
in conducting a VPM interview or meeting:
Attending Skills
Attending means presenting yourself physically in a manner
that show you are paying attention to your participant. When you use attending
skills, you are building rapport with your VPM interview participant. You are
communicating that you value them as an individual and are interested in their
role within an organization. Attending helps you gather information from the
participant. Your physical positioning enables you to observe participants’
behaviors, which are important sources of information for you in assessing how
the interview is being received. In some cases, you may be conducting your VPM
interviews virtually via phone. You voice, tone, and choice of words will be
the main avenue for you to indicate that you are attending to the participant.
The following attending behaviors show your interest in your
participants in person:
- Facing the participants
- Maintaining appropriate eye contact
- Moving toward the participants
- Avoiding distracting behaviors
The following attending behaviors show your interest in your
participants virtually:
- Confirm that the meeting time is still convenient,
build rapport through small talk
- Avoid “dead air” as much as possible.
Paraphrasing or acknowledging their statements is helpful
- Let the participant know that they will hear
keyboard sounds from you taking notes because the sound may be misunderstood as
you multi-tasking during the session
Observing Skills
Observing skills help you assess how the VPM interview is
being received. Based on your observations over time, you can make decisions to
continue the interview process as planned, or to modify it to respond to the
participants needs.
Although a single behavior can serve as an indicator of a
feeling, your inferences will be based on the total data you collect from the
continuing observations you make as a Facilitator. Whether you decide to take
action or not will depend on the situation as you view it, the depth and
possible duration of it, and the impact it will have on the interview. If the
situation warrants action in your judgment, consider the following possible
actions:
Listening Skills
Listening, as we define it, means obtaining verbal
information and verifying that you understand the information. Listening skills
enable you to demonstrate your understanding of the participants’ perspective.
They also provide you with feedback in considering how you need to proceed in
conducting your VPM interview. Your main focus is to discover implicit meaning
from explicit explanation.
Listen to the Words Being Expressed
As you listen to the words being expressed, try to grasp
both the content and the meaning of the words from the participant’s
perspective. While this may sound simple, you will find that major roadblocks
to listening to the participant’s words are the internal and external
distractions that compete with good listening habits. Internal distractions are
competing thoughts that develop inside you while the participant is talking.
External distractions are things that happen in the environment that compete
with you for the participant’s attention
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing to demonstrate understanding requires you to
verbally interact with the participant. The interaction is either to: (a) get
additional information to fill in gaps in your understanding and (b) verify
with the participant what you think was said. For example, use a phrase such as
“You’re saying” or “As I understand it” before paraphrasing what the
participant said.
Questioning Skills
Questions play a major role in conducting a VPM interview.
Asking questions effectively during a VPM interview is one of the most important
skills you can develop as a VPM facilitator. Asking questions effectively means
selecting the right type of question, and phrasing it so it obtains the
response you are after.
Once the facilitator has decided on the type of question,
the facilitator needs to determine how to phrase it. The following mind map
provides information to help decide how to direct questions.
What are some of your best communication tips?
For you VPM veterans out there, what is your biggest challenge in conducting
interviews?
